Institut Pasteur, Unité de Biologie des Spirochètes, Centre National de Référence de la Leptospirose, Paris, France.
Vet Res. 2013 Sep 9;44(1):80. doi: 10.1186/1297-9716-44-80.
In the past decade, leptospirosis has emerged as a major zoonosis with a worldwide distribution. The disease is caused by bacteria of the genus Leptospira. The western Indian Ocean includes more than one hundred tropical or subequatorial islands where leptospirosis constitutes a major public health problem. The clinical signs of the human disease are generally similar to an influenza-like syndrome, but acute forms of the disease are reported and mortality remains significant in this region. In animals, clinical forms are mainly asymptomatic but leptospirosis reduces the fertility of livestock, resulting in economic losses. The data available about human and animal leptospirosis in the western Indian Ocean islands are diverse: human leptospirosis has been extensively studied in Reunion Island, Mayotte, and the Seychelles, whereas the human clinical disease has never been described in Madagascar, Comoros, Mauritius, or Rodrigues, mainly because of the deficiency in appropriate medical and diagnostic structures. The rat is recognized as the major reservoir host for the bacteria on all islands, but recent data from Reunion Island indicates that almost all mammals can be a source of contamination. The incidence of leptospirosis in humans is highly seasonal, and linked to the rainy season, which is favorable for the environmental maintenance and transmission of the bacteria. The epidemiology of leptospirosis is fully island-dependent, related to the number of mammalian species, the origins of the introduced mammalian species, the relationships between humans and fauna, and environmental as well as cultural and socio-economic factors.
在过去的十年中，钩端螺旋体病已成为一种分布广泛的主要动物源性传染病。该病由钩端螺旋体属细菌引起。西印度洋包括一百多个热带或亚热带岛屿，这些岛屿上的钩端螺旋体病是一个主要的公共卫生问题。人类疾病的临床症状通常与流感样综合征相似，但该地区有报道称该病存在急性形式，死亡率仍然很高。在动物中，临床形式主要为无症状，但钩端螺旋体病降低了牲畜的繁殖力，导致经济损失。关于西印度洋岛屿上的人类和动物钩端螺旋体病的数据多种多样：人类钩端螺旋体病在留尼汪岛、马约特岛和塞舌尔得到了广泛研究，而马达加斯加、科摩罗、毛里求斯或留尼汪岛从未描述过人类临床疾病，主要是因为缺乏适当的医疗和诊断结构。老鼠被认为是所有岛屿上细菌的主要储存宿主，但来自留尼汪岛的最新数据表明，几乎所有哺乳动物都可能成为污染源。人类钩端螺旋体病的发病率具有很强的季节性，与雨季有关，这有利于细菌的环境维持和传播。钩端螺旋体病的流行病学完全依赖于岛屿，与哺乳动物物种的数量、引入的哺乳动物物种的起源、人类与动物群的关系以及环境、文化和社会经济因素有关。
